The Time for Gun Control is Now

Image Courtesy of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By Mariam Baldwin

Firearms have been the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in our country since 2020. The United States is the only major industrialized nation able to say this.

I’m a member of the cohort known as ‘Gen Z,’ and can testify that mass shootings mark so much of my generation’s upbringing. We’ve seen them in all the major headlines: Sandy Hook, Parkland, Uvalde, and countless others. Most recently, a student opened fire at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, on September 4, 2024. Four people were killed and another nine were injured.

In the face of repeated tragedy, American politicians fail to pass comprehensive gun control. To make this an even greater obstacle, gun rights lobbyists spend over $10 million each year. But when will enough be enough? How many more shootings have to weave themselves into the American conscience before we take action? 

The usage of firearms outside of regulation has proven to be a danger through solitary actors such as the individual from this past week. These actors, predominantly erratic young men, perpetrate most mass shootings. The Founding Fathers did not have the modern gun culture which allows these tragedies in mind when drafting the Second Amendment. Rather, they were trying to protect state rights against the backdrop of the Revolutionary War through regulated firearms. Mass shootings occur outside of what they wrote to protect with the Second Amendment and should therefore be prevented through gun control.

In order to crack down on gun violence, universal background checks must be required to purchase guns. While background checks are already required to buy guns from a licensed dealer, they aren’t required to buy guns from an unlicensed dealer online or at a gun show. Universal background check legislation would make sure that background checks are required to purchase all guns. The United States must also prohibit assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Assault weapons are semi-automatic guns that fire a round every time the trigger is pulled, and high-capacity magazines can feed as many as 100 rounds of ammunition into the firearm. A shooter using an assault rifle can hurt and kill twice as many people as he could with a non-assault rifle or handgun. These are weapons of destruction that have no place in American society. 

While the measures I’ve described are by no means a panacea for gun violence, they’re a start to fixing the mass shooting epidemic facing the United States. It’s time that we stop stumbling over our own inaction and pass legislation. The NRA continues to trip -up public sentiment with the declaration that gun rights are “freedom’s most valuable, most cherished, most irreplaceable idea.” But the United States is chained to the cycle of gun violence. Until gun control is passed, our children and teens are only free to reenact the same tragedies.